Plato and Aristotle on the Nature of Women NICHOLAS D. SMITH hN ThE
Republic, Plato argues that women (at least those in the upper
classes ~) must be assigned social roles in the ideal state equal
(or approximat&) to those of men. Only one generation later
Aristotle, in his Politics, returns women to their traditional
roles in the home, subserving men. Plato's position in the Republic
is based upon his view that "women and men have the same nature in
respect to the guardianship of the state, save insofar as the one
is weaker and the other is stronger ''~ (456A). Nature provides no
such equality in Aristotle; in the Politics he flatly declares, "as
regards the sexes, the male is by nature superior and the female
inferior, the male ruler and the female subject ''4 (1254b13-14).
Other dialogues of his middle period support the view that Plato
was a sexual egalitarian: 5 the Meno, for example, assigns the same
virtues to i am indebted to David Keyt, Charles M. Reed, Carol
White, Julie Murphy, George Lucas, and the editors of this journal
for their criticisms of various drafts of this paper, and to
Gregory Vlasms for first arousing my interest in this topic and for
making numerous suggestions that have helped clarify my thinking
about it. I am also indebted to the National Endowment for the
Humanities and the Center for Programs in the Humanities at
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for their help
in funding this research. ' Plato says nothing about the women of
the artisan class in this regard, though he may view his
prescriptions as having full generality. On the specifics of this
qualification, more below. :~ This and all other translations of
the Republic are by P. Shorey. 4 This and all other translations of
the Politics are by H. Rackham. 5 I use the term "sexual
egalitarian" with some trepidation, given the various ways in which
Plato qualifies his relevant prescriptions. Similarly, terms like
"feminist" and "male chau- vinist," so frequently employed by
scholars in this discussion, are arguably anachronistic over-
simplifications, at best, given the cultural and temporal gaps
between our culture and that of classical Athens. Finally, I shall
not refer to Plato's "emancipation" of women at all, since that
appears to be inaccurate as well as anachronistic: there's little
freedom given to anyone in Plato's state, and his making women
roughly equal to men merely allows them to share the same quite
high degree of non-freedom in their civic roles. [467] 468 JOURNAL
OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 2~: 4 oct ~983 women as to men (73 A
ff.), and Aristophanes' speech in the Symposium provides women with
a genetic and biological status equal to that of men (lo9A ft.), a
status never disputed as such elsewhere in the dialogue. Aristo-
tle, on the other hand, plainly distinguishes manly from womanly
virtues (Pol. 126oa2o ft.), and sees biology as demonstrating that
the generation of the female is no better than that of a "mutilated
male" (D.G.A. 737a28), a reproductive failure the same in kind,
though of a lesser degree, as those that result in (other)
monstrosities (D.G.A. 767b6-9 ff.). Because of such differences in
their views, Plato has lately been celebrated by some as, for
example, "one of the few notable exceptions" in our long history of
sexism, ~ whereas Aristotle has been angrily dismissed as "a
dangerous chauvinist. ''7 Too little attention, however, has been
paid to what is common to Plato's and Aristotle's views. Both apply
the same principle as their warrant for what turn out to be wholly
incompatible policies: both proclaim that justice will only be
served where social roles are assigned in strict accordance with
nature. Hence, the root of Plato's and Aristotle's divergent social
prescrip- tions concerning women is to be found in their
conceptions of female na- ture; for if nature were to provide a
difference between male and female that is relevant to the
assignment of social roles, both would be committed to
discriminating on the basis of sex. Plato does not find such a
difference; Aristotle does. In the following discussion...

You must be logged in through an institution that subscribes to this journal or book to access the full text.

Shibboleth

Shibboleth authentication is only available to registered institutions.

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the simple Search box at the top of the page or the Advanced Search linked from the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the Advanced Search page or on your search results page. Click the Browse box to see a selection of books and journals by: Research Area, Titles A-Z, Publisher, Books only, or Journals only.